LATINO LEADERS PUSHING CENSUS EDUCATION * STAND UP AND BE COUNTED IS THE MESSAGE THEY WANT TO GET OUT ACROSS THE STATE.

ERIKA CHAVEZ, The Morning CallTHE MORNING CALL

Census and state officials may appear at your door this spring with a friendly, musical reminder to fill out your census questionnaire.

Inspired by Christmastime's traditional Puerto Rican "parranda," or "asalto," Latino community advocates are planning to join officials and go door to door in Latino neighborhoods throughout the state, singing, celebrating and adding people to the procession along the way.

The door-to-door party is among new strategies to help Latinos statewide stand up and be counted during the upcoming decennial census, said Maritza Robert, executive director of the Governor's Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs.

Census officials and community leaders met Thursday at the Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations to plan ways to increase the Latino community's participation in the census.

"Anything we can do to get the word out and remind people to fill out their census forms will help all Latinos," Robert said.

Scheduled for March 25, just after the forms are mailed to homes across the nation, officials hope the "parranda," or human caravan, will help spread the message that participating in the census is important for all Latinos.

"We want the community to take ownership of the census," said Idalie Munoz-Munoz, a partnership specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau. "They will benefit for the next 10 years in terms of political representation and receiving their fair share of federal funds."

Robert estimates that as many as 100,000 Pennsylvania Latinos may not have been counted during the last census in 1990, which translates into as much as $100 million lost in federal funding and loans for education and health care, among other things.

In the Lehigh Valley, where the Latino population jumped by 36 percent, from 26,592 to 36,170, between 1990 and 1997, an accurate count will be critical, she said.

The meeting was the first of 13 throughout the state. A strategy meeting for the Lehigh Valley is scheduled Sept.22. The purpose of the meetings is to form committees that will devise local strategies.

The Governors' Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs also has commissioned a salsa song with lyrics extolling the benefits of the census. Officials hope it will get air time on Spanish-language stations across the state.

Also at the meeting, a representative from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund unveiled the organization's nationwide campaign targeting Latinos.

The $2 million effort will include public service announcements airing on Univision, Telemundo and ABC-TV, as well as an informational video about the census sponsored by Blockbuster Video.

"We're hoping to reach recently arrived immigrants who are not familiar with English or unfamiliar with the purpose of the census," said Daniel Diaz, regional census director for the fund.

As many as 5 percent of all Latinos were not counted during the 1990 census, Diaz said, more than any ethnic group except American Indians living on reservations. The reasons Latinos tend to not be counted are complex, he said.

"First, there's fear that the information they provide might somehow be used against them by the government," said Diaz, noting that many immigrants fled political persecution in war-torn countries. "We want to teach them that the information they provide will be completely confidential."

Still others don't know, don't understand or don't care about the importance of the census because of language barriers or misperceptions.

"In Mexico, for example, the census is almost considered a national holiday. People sit at home and wait for enumerators to come to their door, and they expect the same to happen here, so they might not bother filling out the form they receive."

Robert is optimistic that this time around, more Latinos will participate.

"We have people hard at work in each part of the state. I'm glad we started planning early because the word is out now," she said.